Steve O'Keefe's Complete Guide To Internet Publicity

Published by Patron Saint Productions, Inc.Reprinted with permission.

"Always start a story at the most exciting point," was the advice of my writing instructor, Brenda Ueland. So I'm beginning this book with three very exciting things I have done with live video recently that I think are going to change your world.

No one is quite sure what "Web 2.0" means. It's a catch-all phrase that has a lot to do with personal interaction, personalization and feedback. It was credited to one of the patriarchs of the digerati, Tim O'Reilly in 2003. Many pundits have taken a stab at a definition of "Web3.0." For me, it means:

Your Life, Online, Real-Time

Every moment of every day accessible from everywhere.

Think about it. You are already being observed and recorded everywhere you go. In my home town, traffic lights will send tickets toyour home with links to video of your vehicle blowing through a stoplight. Your bank, gas station, post office, grocery store, corner quickiemart all have you on video. Online mapping programs share satellite images of your house with all seekers. Your cell phone -- which also records video now -- tracks your location at all times. Hook all those feeds to the Internet, and what do you get?

I used to have a normal life like most people: waking, working, dinner, downtime, bed -- you know the drill. That was in the era known as PRSS or "Pre-RSS" which stands for "press" which is what the media used to be called.

It took user-generated content to really put the ME in MEdia -- the narcissism of blogging combined with Ridiculously Simple Syndication (RSS) has turned my life into a well-tagged, keyword-rich, living hell.

I'm a PR guy. I influence the media for a living. Now I have to influence the MEdia. That means YOU, dear reader, dear blogger, dear person-of-the-year. I have to find your blog and register and get a user ID and a password and confirm and set up a profile and search and comment and pitch you by email, and sometimes I even have to read your blog.

I have to endure photos of your meals snapped moments before you consumed them. I have to scroll past your pithy answers to the cyberpoll of the moment. I have to hear what you think about the U.S. Presidential election no matter that your blog is devoted to toothpaste research or natural repellents for garden pests or any of a billion splinter topics that specialists have staked-out online.

Isn’t it irritating to look at one of your books on Amazon.com and see incorrect, misleading, or just plain missing information? You bet it is! Almost every client I’ve worked with is unhappy about how their books are presented on Amazon. Publishers and their staffs see these listings, as well as authors and their families, customers, reviewers, and trade buyers.

Last month, I conducted an online bookstore display campaign for a client, asking high-traffic web sites to feature her book. Here’s the response I received from one helpful webmaster:

We earn money by referring the potential book-buyer to Amazon. The problem is that the Amazon listing [for your book] has no book jacket or reviews attached to it. This undermines the credibility of the book in the eye of the potential purchaser. We would love to link to the book. We will also do it in on the first page of our site if you can organize for the jacket and reviews to appear on Amazon. As soon as this is done please send us an e-mail and we’ll put the book on our site.

Clearly, my client had a problem. I told her I would fix her Amazon listing, but when I tried to access the same tools I’ve used in the past to correct Amazon problems, they no longer worked. I spent almost 3 hours trying to find new instructions on how to overhaul an Amazon page. This time, I made detailed notes to share with you. These instructions should be good until the next time Amazon moves the info.